The biggest trends in the restaurant industry right now

What does the Technomic Top 500 tell us about the restaurant industry right now? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Pawlak, managing principal with Technomic. And we talk all about the report and the trends that it reveals. The Top 500 is essentially data on the chain restaurant industry, since that data makes up the vast majority of chain sales. Restaurant sales increased more than 8% last year, but that was due entirely to prices and some unit growth, rather than traffic. We talk about some chains on that Top 500, including the chicken business, specifically Popeyes and KFC, and why one of those chains has been able to thrive in a changing market for chicken. We also talk about how top heavy the Top 500 is getting, given performance of chains high up on the list. We talk about which sectors are doing the best and get into a discussion on the beverage business. And we talk about what chains have the most potential to hit the Top 10.